Oren’s Weblog

We’re back from our Caribbean trip, if not yet caught up from the jet lag (it’s a four hour time difference).

While I’d always been skeptical of big cruises, it turned out to be a lovely experience, and a great way to handle a group of nine people ranging in age from 6 to 83 with a variety of interests and tastes. The excellent staff of the Celebrity Constellation took great care of us, and the various islands we visited (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Barbados, St. Lucia, and Antigua) were beautiful, fascinating and very different from each other.

We took a submarine ride around a coral reef in Barbados, played on beaches on St. Lucia and Antigua, visited a batik studio on St. Lucia, walked around old San Juan, Puerto Rico, and more.

One of the things I really liked about the cruise ship was that everything from stateroom access to shore excursions to ordering extras (like espressos and wine) was controlled by a single ship identity card. It was great not to have to carry a wallet full of different cards for different purposes. It seems like life would be a lot simpler if I could get by on a daily basis with a single card.

I have to admit that it was great to not be online for ten days. The only time I touched a computer during this trip was to burn a set of photos to CD to free up the memory sticks for the rest of the trip. Creation of computer accounts on the ship were, of course, enabled by swiping the ship ID card.

Photos of the trip are here, with some additional photos from Old San Juan (a wonderful city) here (for some inexplicable reason, .Mac’s photo web page creation tool only lets you create a single page per site, with a max of 48 pictures per page).

I had a great time, and I’d be really happy to spend more time exploring the region and getting to know the cultures and geography better.

My mother wanted a Carribean cruise for her 80th birthday… and don’t you think 80-year-olds should get what they want?

Normally a cruise wouldn’t be our usual style of vacationing, but right now it sounds just lovely.

So tomorrow morning we’re off on an 8 am flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where we board the Celebrity Constellation, bound for seven days of fun and sun with nine family members and 2,000 of our closest friends (and no connectivity)! Then we’ll spend a few days in San Juan, playing tourist.

I’ll be the guy in the chaise lounge with the funny drink with the umbrella in it…

Happy Holidays to all of you – see you in a couple of weeks!

On Monday I noted a couple of articles from unusual places lauding Costco as a place to shop.

Then today, I notice that this week’s issue of the Seattle Weekly (our local left-of-center free weekly rag) has a cover article with the headline “Company For The People” and the blurb says:

Costco is defying Wall Street and whipping Wal-Mart, proving that you can succeed in business with ‘blue state’ values.

Is this what they mean by a meme?

First Greg Atkinson (the well-respected Seattle chef) writes in the Seattle Times Pacific Magazine:

In our experience, Costco employees are an enthusiastic, hard-working lot who genuinely want me to find what I need when I shop where they work. And generally speaking, I do.

I certainly don’t shop for everything at Costco, just those items that I think of as “Costco items.” For example, I can find real Reggiano Parmiggiano, the Parmesan cheese from Parma, for about half the price it sells for at the supermarket. And if I want to peel curls of that cheese over some killer sun-dried tomatoes, I can find those in the grocery section. I can snare some good imported olive oil and balsamic vinegar there, too.

And now it’s Kevin Kelly, Wired magazine’s founding Executive Editor, writing in his Cool Tools blog:

Costco has become my personal shopper. I do some research, then I buy what they sell. Like all discount chains they have professionals working full time looking for deals/quality. But what I like about Costco is their niche — which is my niche. They consistently find a bargain in the “highest common denominator” bracket. What they seem to aim for, and what I am happy with, is the highest quality common quality. Not the very best, not the cheapest, and not mediocre either, but a good brand-name bargain in the high middle. They consistently deliver a great price on a very popular and competent item. It’s neither optimization (the top model with the most features), nor is it minimization (cheapest per feature) nor plain thriftiness. Rather Costco aims for some sort of consumer satisficing, to use Herb Simon’s term: a high quality that is just good enough, but at a low-end price.